Out-and-regretting-it comprehensive attendee Jayden Phillips turns his cast-iron plans for life upside-down by falling in love with private-school violinist Darren Peace, a sardonic boy with the craziest hair Jayden's ever seen.<br><br>But all is not what it seems, and Jayden's bullying problem becomes meaningless when he is confronted with what the music does to Darren. How do you stop a dangerous depression rooted in the same thing that makes someone what they are? Dark moods, blank apathy, and the undertow of self-loathing all simmer beneath Darren's dry and beautiful veneer, and Jayden feels powerless to stop them.<br><br>Then a mugging gone wrong takes the music forcibly away, and Jayden is finally given the chance to change Darren's life -- and, quite literally, his mind.

Vivaldi in the Dark

“And your old man, he do things with you? Take you to the park and football and read to you and patch up your knees when you skinned them, all of that? Yell at you for not eating your peas, and sneak you ice-cream when your mum’s not looking?”


“Yeah.” Jayden began to see where this was going.


“Not Jeff,” Scott said flatly, stroking his fingers over the back of Darren’s hand absently. “That was all me. I always wanted a baby brother, even if he had to be Jeff’s kid. When Mother said she was expecting a baby, I must have asked every day for the next five months if he was ready yet. I think I took ‘bun in the oven’ a bit literally.”


Jayden snorted, and a crooked smile washed briefly over Scott’s face.


Chapter 91